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Author
Topic: HIV, Change, and Services (Read 998 times)

MANNA is a home delivered meal service that originally served only PWA's (that's: People With AIDS). The organization has provided meals to many of my friends during some of their serious illnesses. It, however, nearly went out of business and now serves a variety of people with serious illnesses. In order to stay afloat they had to CHANGE WITH THE TIMES. It hurts to know that although HIV is still a serious, life threatening disease, organizations like this cannot remain solvent unless they treat HIV as one of a number of serious illnesses. This article seems relevant to discussion we have had here about how perceptions of HIV have changed and why.

Exerpt:Founded in 1990 by members of the First Presbyterian Church, near 21st and Locust Streets, Manna was created to help people wasting from AIDS. It was just eight years after the disease had been identified, and the stigma and public ignorance were widespread. People in the later stages of AIDS were often shunned, left isolated, and too weak to feed themselves.In some ways, Keaveney said, Manna's expansion is testament to advances in treating HIV and AIDS. People with the immunity-destroying virus no longer face a sure, fast decline and death.

A few years ago, Keaveney said, the change became evident when Manna began seeing potential clients with HIV who did not strictly qualify because the life-threatening illness they had was not AIDS.

"What we found was that people were living longer," Keaveney said. "They needed care because of heart disease or diabetes, but AIDS was not the problem."